In the fall of 1972, my parents drove me to the University of North Dakota for my freshman year.

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Grand Forks, for example, is home to the University of North Dakota, which has a Center for Innovation-ranked eighth best undergraduate program in the country.

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The University of North Dakota and North Dakota State University came out the strongest in our list, in large part because the state is not running a deficit.

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Researchers at the University of North Dakota, working with NASA and others, recently flew a Cirrus SR22 equipped with special software to see if it could sense and avoid conflicts with a nearby Cessna 172.

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At the Hilton Garden Inn Grand Forks, which is connected by closed walkways to the University of North Dakota's Center for Innovation, I heard Irish and Norwegian accents and saw two Southeast Asians working on a presentation.

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Only four schools in 2003's top 25 (Bryant University, The University of South Dakota, Hofstra University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) remain on the list.

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But Fargo has North Dakota State University, a vendor of young brains employed by a large Microsoft division and by newer outfits, such as Alien Technology, an RFID chip leader.

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